Candidate connections: Taylor

James Taylor, a GOP write-in candidate for state senator, has connections to two groups founded by William Regnery II, a man identified with white nationalism.

Taylor was linked in the past to two groups which the Southern Poverty Law Center associates with "academic racism."

- Taylor was on the board of directors of the National Policy Institute, whose self-described mission is "to elevate the consciousness of whites, ensure our biological and cultural continuity, and protect our civil rights." Regnery founded the conservative think tank in 2005.

- Taylor runs America's PAC and was its executive director in 2004 when the PAC contributed $5,000 to the Charles Martel Society. The society, founded in 2001 by Regnery, publishes The Occidental Quarterly.

The Occidental Quarterly is devoted to the idea that the civilization which whites have created will be jeopardized as whites become a minority, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. Its editors and advisory board members constitute a Who's Who of the radical right.

"I thought the Charles Martel Society was too militant," Taylor said. "If I gave it (a donation), it was to start up the NPI. You've got the NAACP and B'nai B'rith. Why not something for white people?"

The grant to the Charles Martel Society is one of the PAC's largest single contributions in the past decade. Only Pat Toomey received a larger amount, $6,000 in the 2010.

In 2004, the PAC's most successful year at fundraising, five U.S.

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House and Senate candidates received $5,000 each.

Taylor said he had agreed to help his friend, Regnery, to raise money to start a "respectable, academic" organization that would review the effect of public policy on whites.

Two early NPI studies reported that immigration was affecting employment among both whites and blacks, and that illegal immigrants could be physically deported.

"I haven't been involved in years," Taylor said. "I wouldn't be involved now considering what they have on the website now."

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes itself as "dedicated to fighting hate and bigotry, and to seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of our society."

Heidi Beirich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, said she was unable to comment about candidates for political office beyond the information that appears on the center's website "because that would threaten our tax-exempt status."

The center in 2004 identified Regnery as "a prime mover and shaker in white nationalism."

"Who I am is far more defined by my association with the Lincoln Institute than with NPI," Taylor said.

Taylor is a director with an organization that re-evaluates public policy issues that impact the lives of black middle America. Taylor said he helped raise money for the Lincoln Institute for Research and Education when it was founded in 1978 by Jay Parker.

Parker, a conservative black and international consultant, served on Ronald Reagan's transition team. Taylor said he and Parker are from Philadelphia and have known each other since college.